Don't ignore the logs! XDEB will notify you about package conflicts

The code pushed to master might not fully work. Please use releases instead

XDEB

Simple utility to convert deb(ian) packages to xbps packages. Written in posix compliant shell.

Contents

• Usage
  • Installation
  • Converting your package
    • Which flags to use?
    • Automatic Dependencies
    • Converting i386 package
    • File Conflicts
  • Help Page
    • Using Manual dependencies
• Explanation
  • Reasons to use
  • Why DEB packages?
  • Features

Usage

Installation

If you like to install xdeb, copy the script to /usr/local/bin/. In addition to copying the script, a couple of dependencies are needed:
Install them using xbps-install binutils tar curl xbps xz.

Unless you set XDEB_PKGROOT yourself (ie. ${HOME}/.config/xdeb), the script will operate in the current directory. The resulting binary will be exported to ${XDEB_PKGROOT}/binpkgs. (./binpkgs by default)

Converting your package

1. Download the latest release
2. Make the xdeb script executable (chmod 0744 xdeb)
3. Convert the package (./xdeb -Sde <name>_<version>_<arch>.deb)
4. Install the package (xbps-install -R binpkgs <name>)

Flags

You should generally run xdeb with -Sde, which stands for "Sync dependency file, enable dependencies, remove empty directories". Alternatively, use your shells rc, to always run xdeb with the suggested options.

export XDEB_OPT_DEPS=true
export XDEB_OPT_SYNC=true
export XDEB_OPT_WARN_CONFLICT=true
export XDEB_OPT_FIX_CONFLICT=true

Automatic Dependencies

xdeb can now resolve the runtime dependencies.
This allows reliable conversion for nearly all deb packages.

Multilib

The -m flag adds the -32bit suffix to the package and all it's dependencies. The example shows how to convert a 32bit package.

./xdeb -Sedm --arch=x86_64 ~/Downloads/Simplenote-linux-1.16.0-beta1-i386.deb

Installing the newly converted package requires the multilib repositories to be installed. Note, that /lib will not be converted to /lib32

File Conflicts

By default, xdeb will show a warning if a file is already present on the system (And not a directory). This behavior ensures that the converting package won't break the system.
If xdeb complains about conflicting files, manually removing them from the destdir directory and rebuilding with -rb might help.
Having a package already installed (For example when updating it) will output a lot of conflicts. To counteract this, xdeb has the -i flag, which silences file conflicts.

Help Page

usage: xdeb [-S] [-d] [-Sd] [--deps] ... FILE
  -d                         # Automatic dependencies
  -S                         # Sync runtime dependency file
  -c                         # Clean everything except shlibs and binpkgs
  -r                         # Clean repodata (Use when rebuilding a package)
  -q                         # Don't build the package at all
  -C                         # Clean all files
  -b                         # No extract, just build files in destdir
  -e                         # Remove empty directories
  -m                         # Add the -32bit suffix
  -i                         # Ignore file conflicts
  -f                         # Attempt to automatically fix common conflicts
  --deps=...                 # Add manual dependencies
  --arch=...                 # Add an arch for the package to run on
  --revision=... | --rev=... # Set package revision. Alternative to -r
  --help | -h                # Show this page

example:
  xdeb -Cq                   # Remove all files and quit
  xdeb -Sd FILE              # Sync depdendency list and create package
  xdeb --deps='tar>0' FILE   # Add tar as manual dependency and create package

Using Manual dependencies

Converting Minecraft.deb:

$ ./xdeb -Sedr --deps='oracle-jre>=8' ~/Downloads/Minecraft.deb
[+] Synced shlibs
[+] Extracted files
[+] Resolved dependencies (oracle-jre>=8 alsa-lib>=1.0.20_1 atk>=1.26.0_1
cairo>=1.8.6_1 dbus-libs>=1.2.10_1 expat>=2.0.0_1 fontconfig>=2.6.0_1
gdk-pixbuf>=2.22.0_1 glib>=2.18.0_1 glibc>=2.29_1 gtk+>=2.16.0_1 gtk+3>=3.0.0_1
libcups>=1.5.3_1 libgcc>=4.4.0_1 libstdc++>=4.4.0_1 libuuid>=2.18_1
libX11>=1.2_1 libxcb>=1.2_1 libXcomposite>=0.4.0_1 libXcursor>=1.1.9_1
libXdamage>=1.1.1_1 libXext>=1.0.5_1 libXfixes>=4.0.3_1 libXi>=1.2.1_1
libXrandr>=1.3.0_1 libXrender>=0.9.4_1 libXScrnSaver>=1.1.3_1 libXtst>=1.0.3_1
nspr>=4.8_1 nss>=3.12.4_1 pango>=1.24.0_1 zlib>=1.2.3_1)
index: added `minecraft-launcher-2.1.17627_1' (x86_64).
index: 1 packages registered.
[+] Done. Install using `xbps-install -R binpkgs minecraft-launcher-2.1.17627_1`

$ sudo xbps-install -R ./binpkgs minecraft-launcher-2.1.17417_1

Name               Action    Version           New version            Download size
GConf              install   -                 3.2.6_9                - 
minecraft-launcher install   -                 2.1.17417_1            - 

Size required on disk:         198MB
Space available on disk:       276GB

Do you want to continue? [Y/n] n

If the package just depends on a package with no specific version, add >0 to match any version (i.e. --deps='tar>0 base-system>0 curl>0')

Explanation

Reasons to use

• The VoidLinux-Team refuses to ship more chromium based browsers.
• Electron based applications, like Simplenote
• Proprietary applications like Discord or Minecraft.

Using one of the packages listed above on VoidLinux, requires having to build them yourself.
This requires getting to know the build system, cloning the (~150MB) void-packages repository, etc. This script handles everything automatically, without accessing the internet by default.

Why deb packages?

The deb package format is undoubtedly the most commonly used format, since Debian is the most popular Linux distro.
You can expect nearly every Linux application to provide a binary deb package.

Features

• Convert a package
• Restore changes made by this script
• Dependency resolving (xdeb -Sd)
• Show conflicting files
• Remove bundled shlibs
• Exclude dependencies